Working Birding

I am in bonny Scotland for a couple of days, a flying visit pre-Christmas to see my parents in Fife. Unfortunately this is not a holiday, I ran out of those some time ago. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology though I can essentially perform my role from anywhere, and if it is just for a few days I'd wager quite a few people may not even notice my seat in Canary Wharf is empty as I continue to be on conference calls and am still firing out emails at a furious rate.

So today, which just ended from a work perspective, rather than gazing out at a sea of sterile concrete and glass as I would normally, instead I had a nice view of a hedge, two recently filled peanut feeders, a strip of grass and then a large hill and a portion of sky. As a result rather than seeing a Pigeon (if I'm lucky!) I saw an almost constant stream of garden birds. And not just your regulars like Blue Tits and Robins. The feeders here have Bullfinches and Tree Sparrows! In fact the Tree Sparrows outnumber almost everything else, and given how scarce they are where I come from this really is a special treat. Today I logged around 20 species, including a small skein of Pink-footed Geese which were a 'garden' tick. 

It is the differences I find interesting. Not that my parents see any distinction between a House Sparrow or a Tree Sparrow of course, so telling them how cool this is falls somewhat on deaf ears, but when my Mum was down in London recently she couldn't wait to tell me about all the "Parrots" she had seen on my feeders while I was out at work. Which naturally fell on completely deaf ears....

Illustrative....the views here are not quite like this.